Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- 2017 Year in Climate. It’s been a wild, woolly years of climate highs and policy lows.
- Fossils of Congress, featuring real, non-elected fossils, found around DC, might be my new favorite thing.
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- California bans recreational abalone diving, which is frustrating many divers I know, but is probably a smart move. It was cool while it lasted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw0jIXrJcPk
- Margaret Atwood on her conservation-themed graphic novel, dystopian futures, and how not to despair. See below for her new graphic novel.
- Papua New Guinea locals file case to stop seabed mining. Nautilus responds that the environmental impact statement has been in public domain for 8 years. This of course raises the question as what “available” really means when asking people with limited internet and to find and download a 200+ MB technical document.
- A mysterious Thai singer performing in an oyster costume is the top YouTube video for 2017 and I could not be happier.
- Mussels on Acid: Variability in ocean acidity may be a bigger deal than scientists thought. (side note: can we all chip in a get Hakai’s headline writer a bottle of rum? They’ve earned it.)
- This baby otter does not want to swim. Must This Baby Otter Learn to Swim? He must.
- America’s Next Crude Export Boom May Start at this Floating Buoy Offshore Louisiana. Yay.
- 230-foot-long killer whale geoglyph re-discoverded in Peru Desert.
- The Truth about Shrimp Rings: A seasonal snack with a sinister story. Don’t eat the shrimp.
- There’s little middle ground in Internet discussions of climate change—Does it matter? In contrast: In the Arctic Ocean, at Least, Diplomacy Works.
- Ever wonder what do the creatures living in marine sediment use as food sources? Small Things Considered has.
- Wired’s new Digital Security Guide is worth a read.
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Fountanier and friends (2017) Are deep-sea ecosystems surrounding Madagascar threatened by land-use or climate change? DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2017.11.011.
- Perrotti (2017) Pollen and Sporormiella evidence for terminal Pleistocene vegetation change and megafaunal extinction at Page-Ladson, Florida. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2017.10.015.
- Rodgers and friends (2012) The Discovery of New Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Communities in the Southern Ocean and Implications for Biogeography. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001234.
- Tebet and friends (2017) Using Ostrom’s principles to assess institutional dynamics of conservation: Lessons from a marine protected area in Brazil. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2017.10.037.
Shipping News (academic and ocean policy wonkery)
- Lost Einsteins: The Innovations We’re Missing. Articles like this always remind of the famous Stephen Gould quote:
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” source.
Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)
- Angel Catbird by Margaret Atwood. Margaret Atwood wrote a comic book and it’s about cats and conservation!
Derelicts (favorites from the deep archive)
- Michelle Heupel discusses the need for lethal shark research.
- Grant Galland discusses sharks and marine protected areas.
- Sally Whatmough discusses SCUBA diver attitudes towards sharks.
Feel free to share your own Foghorns, Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan, Shipping News, Driftwood, and Derelicts in the comments below. If you enjoy Southern Fried Science, consider contributing to my Patreon campaign to help us keep the servers humming and support other innovative ocean science and conservation initiatives.